Setsubun (節分): The End of Winter

Today is Setsubun (節分), the last day of winter according to the traditional lunar calendar in Japan. So as has been a custom for several hundred years on this day, I did mamemaki (豆撒き), which consists of throwing dried or roasted soy beans out of each window and outside door of one’s house while saying “oni ha soto, fuku wa uchi!,” meaning something like “demons out, fortune in!” before eating one bean for each year of your […]

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